Cecotto backs Rossi F1 bid.

Johnny Cecotto, the last man to attempt to switch from motorcycle racing to Formula One, sees no reason why Valentino Rossi cannot follow in his footsteps, following the Italian's recent outings with Ferrari.

Speaking to Italian newspaper Il Giornale, Cecotto admitted that, if he could make the transition, Rossi was more than capable of doing it - despite the former Theodore and Toleman pilot having reputedly troubled his first F1 team-mate, a young Brazilian called Ayrton Senna.

Having triumphed in the 350cc and 750cc categories and run strongly in the 500cc class, Cecotto began to eye a switch to cars, beginning his career in what was then Formula Two. It took him just two years to complete the transformation from two-wheel racer to four, claiming runner-up position in the 1982 championship, attracting admiring glances from F1.

"It was 1980, I was 24 and I had to make the jump at that age," he insisted, "Thus I began to run in F2. Valentino can go straight into F1, but it was a good decision for me. In my second season, I was second in the European championship. I always knew that I was going to move into cars as, unlike Rossi, I had one true background in motorsport. My father was an enthusiast."

Cecotto duly made his grand prix debut in 1983 with the tiny Theodore team but, four races on from Long Beach, the team folded and it appeared that the dream may be over. The British Toleman team, however, was looking for a partner for Senna for the following year and Cecotto got the call, immediately posting times similar and occasionally faster, than the future F1 superstar.

"After Theodore closed, I moved to the Toleman, next to Ayrton, for 1984," he confirmed, "He signed first, for which he became the lead driver. He did the majority of the testing, and ran the turbo engine, when I did not. However, on the one occasion that the team tested us in the same car, at Donington, I was faster, and it maddened poor Ayrton. He could not understand why."

However, despite some promising race performances - including scoring points second time out in what was a back-marking car - Cecotto's season was again cruelly cut short - this time by an accident in the British Grand Prix.

"At Brands Hatch, I destroyed my legs, it was terrible," he recalled, "After eleven months, I returned to a single-seater, but did not have more the power to handle the pedal, especially the braking required by a F1 car. And to think that, before the accident, I had been contacted by Williams, McLaren, Brabham and, above all, by Ferrari..."

He never returned to Formula One, tinkering instead with touring cars, with some success in the DTM, before retiring to raise a family that has now picked up the racing bug. But would he try to discourage Rossi from following in his footsteps?

"Absolutely not," Cecotto insisted, "Today, there are so many driver aids that it makes the switch easier. Valentino is testing both his motorcycle and the F1 car, which the F1 drivers are saying is dangerous because jumping between the two could lead to mistakes in judging braking points and so on, but I say that is nonsense.

"Everything is totally different, and a good pilot cannot be confused on when and how he should brake - even if he moves from one to the other regularly. It is natural for any motorcyclist."

Cecotto also reacts adversely to suggestions, propounded by several drivers, including Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso, that Rossi would never make the grade as he lacks the years of experience gained by most F1 drivers from their early days racing karts and in the junior formulae.

"That is not true either," the Venezuelan insisted, "Yes, Valentino lacks that experience, but I believe that motorcycle racers have more sensibility, and learn more quickly. The main thing he has to learn is to race with less room on the track, but even this is something that he seems to have understood immediately. The rest will be down to his talent.

"If I can do, he can too."